


A Precarious Balancing Act

by afinch



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, GenEx2017, Harry Potter - Freeform, Year Seven
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-08
Updated: 2017-09-08
Packaged: 2018-12-25 11:30:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12034965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afinch/pseuds/afinch
Summary: Poppy and Severus negotiate over injured students while the Carrows hold the Castle.





	A Precarious Balancing Act

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lirin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lirin/gifts).



The screams echoed throughout the castle. One of the only places of respite was the Hospital Ward. The Carrows had it in their head Poppy would keep students safe there. They wouldn't cross the door into the Ward, Poppy had seen to that the first day. When they were injured, either from their own stupidity, or actions of a student, Poppy would patch them up, just the same as the students. It was a true neutral zone, broken only by the presence of the Headmaster, on the Carrows orders.

"And why haven't you released Longbottom yet?" Severus demanded, loudly. The Ward went dead silent, as it always did, when he came in. Everyone looked at Poppy, to see if she would comply this time.

"Hush," Poppy said firmly to the Headmaster. She gestured him out of sight, to a corner created specifically for negotiations. She had managed to grab a 30-minute nap and looked brighter than she usually did. Her hair was still greyer than it had been months earlier, and the permanent circles under her eyes further aged her. She was exhausted. It was a revolving door of patients, and not enough supplies to help all of them. She could have left, fled the castle at any point. But she was a matron, and these were her patients, and she would not leave them until the bitter end.

Protected out of sight and sound in the corner, Poppy finally addressed Severus. "You can't have him until the wounds heal." she said firmly. "It would go faster if you'd give me what I need." She was angry at this. It was a balancing game, and Severus was playing his own balancing game. But what was at stake was more students, with more injuries she couldn't treat.

Severus looked the same. "The Carrows need him again, Poppy. You can't-"

"I know what the consequences are, Severus," Poppy snapped. "If you'd give me the-"

"I'm _trying_ ," Severus hissed.

Poppy bit her lip. She had to decide if she wanted to push it, today. She peeked back into the ward, where the young man was watching them intently. He'd fight her if she tried to send anyone else, but … "Neville's willing to go. He'll be right back here in a few hours' time. I can hold him longer, this next time, perhaps. But I cannot send him now. I'll be sending him to his death." Hidden underneath, a desperate plea to make this easier for all of them. 

Severus wasted no time in trying to debate. He nodded, "Two doses?"

"Three would be better."

"Poppy …"

"He'll be _right back_ ," she hissed at him. What was the point of her if she couldn't protect them as best as she could? Some students would lay in pain, but the Carrows wouldn't come back for them again unless they did something stupid. Someone like Neville, who actively volunteered? Him she needed to fight for. 

Now Severus weighed the choice for a few moments. She knew if he gave her three vials, she was shorting two people a vial, two students who would suffer in unimaginable pain, all so she could release Neville. He knew it too, she knew. She wasn't sure whose side he was on, as he agreed to her demands as often as he refused them. Sometimes it seemed he was waiting for something, but what? Poppy didn't pay too much mind to that. She had bigger concerns. He wouldn't be rushed, so she didn't try. Instead, she looked at him as desperately as she could manage. 

"I'll be back shortly," he said finally.

Poppy nodded and turned back to her patients. The ward was full. The ward was always full.

She made her way to Neville. "I'll have you out of here in a few hours," she told him. "Headmaster Snape is making some more draught."

"You don't have to be so nice to him," Neville said. He sounded weary, a battle-worn soldier.

Poppy waved her hand, dismissing him, "I am not your battle, Mr. Longbottom."

"You are complicit," he muttered.

Poppy closed her eyes. She had to remind herself to take a deep breath and remember that the children had fallen into an 'us vs them' mentality. They would see, when it was all over, how much she was assisting their efforts. If that meant playing the enemy right now, so be it. If it was what they needed to get through this, she'd settle for being the monster in their dreams. Dreaming meant they were alive. Dreaming meant they weren't pale and white and unconscious and teetering on the brink of Death's door. Dreaming meant she'd done her job.

She fluffed his pillow, and kept her voice as cheery as possibly, "Just a few hours."

Severus came back sooner than she expected. A few hours was shortened to just one and a half. While waiting for the draught to do its magic, Severus pulled Poppy back into the corner.

"Alecto stopped me on my way up. I need the third year Ravenclaw boy, too," he said. 

Poppy was shaking her head even before he finished, "Absolutely not. He needs at least a week in here."

"He attacked Alecto in a suicide mission." Severus looked hard, impassive. Poppy wasn't going to move him. It didn't mean she wasn't going to try. 

She drew herself to her full height, spitting angrily at him, "And what did they do to him for that? I don't know that he'll walk without a limp again as it is. I'm not-"

Snape held up a hand to shush her. "Poppy. The third year Ravenclaw boy, or every third year in Ravenclaw."

She shook her head, "You cannot - you - you are the Headmaster! Do you have no say over them? Are you just a figurehead with no- everything! Everything I did for you when you were a student, Severus. And this is how you-?"

"Do you know how to fight?"

The question caught Poppy off-guard. "I will defend the injured with my life," she said cautiously. "Do I need to? Against you?"

Severus shook his head. In the blink of an eye, he stopped looking intimidating and now looked just as weary and battle-worn as Neville had earlier. "I won't raise a wand against you if you refuse," he said softly. "I cannot speak the same of the other Professors. Where will the Castle be without a matron? I need Longbottom and the Ravenclaw. I'm not _asking_ , Poppy."

"Severus …" She looked at him pleadingly, asking for anything in return. She would have settled for a tacit acknowledgement that he was trying just as much as her.

He spoke again, his tone as soft as silk. He was attempting to be reassuring. "I will have the little one back as soon as it can possibly be done."

Neither of them said anything for a long moment. She would not be rushed either, and to his credit, this time he did not rush her.

When she was ready to hand over her students, to acquiesce once more to his demands, she stepped back into the Ward. The lesser of two evils, she told herself. A constant and precarious balancing act. 

She would not make friends; she would save lives.


End file.
